The truth is that thereafter some citizens disregarded
the laws of their States and taught worthy slaves whom they desired to
reward or use in business requiring an elementary education. As these
prohibitions in slave States were not equally stringent, white and
colored teachers of free blacks were not always disturbed. In fact,
just before the middle of the nineteenth century there was so much
winking at the violation of the reactionary laws that it looked as if
some Southern States might recede from their radical position and let
Negroes be educated as they had been in the eighteenth century.
The ways in which slaves thereafter acquired knowledge are
significant. Many picked it up here and there, some followed
occupations which were in themselves enlightening, and others learned
from slaves whose attainments were unknown to their masters. Often
influential white men taught Negroes not only the rudiments of
education but almost anything they wanted to learn. Not a few slaves
were instructed by the white children whom they accompanied to school.
While attending ministers and officials whose work often lay open to
their servants, many of the race learned by contact and observation.
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